CHARLOTTE - As they hope to slowly crawl out of the abyss that makes up the Western Conference standings, the Lakers have continuously proven that compiling victories will become a laborious task.

The Lakers escaped with a 100-93 victory over the Charlotte Bobcats on Friday at Time Warner Cable Arena, an accomplishment only because it prevented another tally in the loss column.

Hence, why it should be hardly surprising Kobe Bryant looked in a dour mood afterwards. He saw the Lakers play the same way the previous night in a double-digit loss to Boston.

"Just irritated," Bryant said. "Very irritated."

He had good reason. The Lakers won only after overcoming a 20-point deficit against the Bobcats, the NBA's worst team. Then again, this isn't anything new.

The Lakers (24-27) have become an equal-opportunity underachiever against both good teams and bad this season.

"We didn't put in the concentration early," said Lakers guard Steve Nash, who posted 17 points on 6-of-12 shooting and seven assists. "We found it and turned it around. But it would've been pretty devastating to lose."

The Lakers managed to squeak one out, though.

After surprisingly finishing the first half scoreless on two field-goal attempts, Bryant scored 14 of his 20 points in the fourth quarter on a series of plays that epitomize his scoring streak. They included turnaround jumpers, layups and trips to the foul line.

Bryant has finished a first half scoreless only six times in his 17-year career. But he made little of it, noting it reflected his hope to jump-start a team that shot only 39.5 percent from the field by passing. But Bryant made plain his irritation that the Lakers don't consistently "play the right way."

"Individually, you want to try to do the right thing, but sometimes what you want to do as an individual conflicts with what you want to do as a group," Bryant said. "You have to let it go and just play ... Everybody points the finger at me for not shooting the ball. That's fine. As long as I'm confident I make the right play to help us as a team, that's the most important thing. We all just need to follow that example and play for each other."

Dwight Howard displayed that in his second consecutive game since sitting out the previous three because of an aggravated torn labrum in his right shoulder. Though foul trouble limited Howard to 12 points and 11 rebounds, his presence and three blocked shots played a large part in the Lakers holding Charlotte (11-38) to 33.3 percent shooting in the fourth quarter.

"We totally sucked and we figured out a way to get out of the hole," said Howard, who didn't gripe about the pain in his shoulder afterward. "We just had to get back and load up."

Meanwhile, the Lakers featured six players in double figures, including Earl Clark with 17 points, Jodie Meeks with 14 and Metta World Peace with 11. All of them complemented Bryant's fourth-quarter barrage, including 3-pointers by Meeks, Nash and Antawn Jamison, as well as World Peace driving to the basket.

Despite the happy ending, few of the Lakers had happy faces. They sounded aware such a blueprint won't hold up Sunday against the defending champion Miami Heat.

"Hopefully this will be a little bit of a wake-up call," Lakers coach Mike D'Antoni said. "Again. For the 80th time. We'll see."